Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, convicted in the killing of Australiam missionary Graham Staines and his minor sons, filed his nomination for Ghasipura assembly constituency in Orissa, a top official said. Dara Singh, presently lodged in a Keonjhar jail, submitted his papers to the sub-collector of Anandapur through an agent identified as Netrananda Mahanta.
"Rabinda Kumar Pal has submitted his papers for Ghasipura seat on the last day of filing nomination as an independent candidate," sub-collector Suresh Chandra Mallick told PTI over phone.
However, certain documents like his affidavit have not been attached by Dara, sources in the election office said.
Manoharpur village, where the missionary Graham Staines was murdered on the night of January 22, 1999, is within the Ghasipura assembly segment. Dara, convicted in September 2003 for the killing, had set fire to the station wagon in which Staines and his two minor sons Philip and Timothy were sleeping.
Though Dara and his associate Mahendra Hembram were given capital punishment, the Orissa high court later commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment. Besides, Dara was also accused in 11 other cases including killing of another Christian priest Arul Doss and a Muslim trader.
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